We Need Protection?

When I was a kid I was usually sent to ride in the far back area of our station wagon.  There, I could play with my army men or cars or trucks.  I had no car seat or seat belt.  Now most people would be aghast at riding in a car without s seat belt or without buckling there kids into car seats.

I used to carry a dime in my wallet so if I had an emergency, I could use a payphone.  I never worried about being out without immediate access to a phone.  When I went to the grocery store, if it wasn't on my list, it didn't get bought.  My wife couldn't call me at the store with additional items to buy.

We never had airbags in any of our cars AND we has metal dashboards.  Now we are afraid to drive a car without airbags.  My first two cars didn't have seat-belts!  I added them, but we didn't always wear them.

I rode several bicycles when I was a kid, and I never had a helmet to wear.  I would have been laughed at.  We used to wear skates that fit onto the soles of our shoes and they had metal wheels.  We didn't wear knee and elbow protectors or helmets when we skated.  Our skateboards were made out of parts from our skates and we didn't wear any protective equipment.

Besides the fact that many laws have been passed to protect us from our laziness or stupidity, we have become a generation of wusses. With good reasons behind all of the safety laws and requirements, for the most part, we have still become afraid to take chances.

The biggest problem that I see is that we take more stupid chances because we have safety equipment supposedly protecting us.  Which leads me to a famous [redneck] saying, "Hey ya'll watch this...".  Are we generally lazy, stupid or just show offs when we perform stupid stunts and make it to the Darwin Awards?  Do we really need legislation to protect us?  The saying goes "Stupidity cures itself!" and therefore tends to clean out the gene pool when necessary!